Qualified Vehicle Modifier

Ford is talking up the first production, in Kansas City, of an F-150 pickup with the gaseous-fuel prep option on its 3.7-liter V-6 engine. “By next summer, Ford will offer eight vehicles that can run on clean-burning, inexpensive CNG/LPG… [This] puts the company on track to sell more than 15,000 such vehicles this year,” states a release.

Ford is talking up the $550 million upfit of MAP, its venerable Michigan Assembly Plant, for a line of common-platform gasoline and electric-drive vehicles, but has chosen case-by-case upfits by half a dozen aftermarket firms, designated Qualified Vehicle Modifiers (QVMs), for compressed natural gas and propane.